Harassment at Work: Do Men Experience It Too?

Most people associate the word harassment with women because they are considered more prone to such actions than men. However, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released job discrimination statistics recently showing that there has been a considerable increase in employment harassment cases involving not women, but men. According to the statistics, the male harassment complaints were filed against both male and female employers, supervisors and co-employees.

The increase in male harassment claims and cases has intrigued many lawyers and social psychologists specializing in situations happening in the workplace. Because of this, they have made several assumptions with regard to this increase in male harassment and discrimination complaints. The following are just few of these theories:

Â· Male and female employees, managers and supervisors want to satisfy their sexual desires by sexually harassing their male subordinates. The most common reason for harassment is to gratify an individual's sexual pleasures. Most of the time, violators use their position and influence in the workplace to force employees to attend to their sexual needs.Â· Employers and co-workers harass male employees who fail to conform to masculinity norms. In layman's terms, this is often called bullying. When male employers notice that an employee is not "masculine enough" in the way he talks and acts, they will commit actions that may hurt him physically and emotionally. This kind of harassment also happens to female employees. Â· It was the incidence of reporting male harassment which increased, not the number of its occurrences. Some experts say that more employees nowadays are beginning to be aware of their employment rights against discrimination and harassment. Because of this, they take immediate action whenever they feel they are experiencing a hostile working environment.

If you are a male employee and have experienced being harassed, abused or discriminated against, you have several options to consider:Â· Complain directly to your employer.Â· Tell your offenders to stop what they are doing. Â· Do not flirt with the alleged harasser.Â· Read your employment contract and look for items related to harassment. Â· Contact a law employment attorney.Â· File a complaint against the responsible individuals.

As a male employee, one of the many problems that you have to overcome is the shame of being involved in a male-to-male harassment case. Once you are liberated with that fear to disclose your situation to the authorities you will begin to have peace of mind for your case lies in good hands.